Incredibly stressed about housing ben

Wicked_witch

In sept 2005 I started university and at the same time my husband left work due to his deteriorating sight. We claimed housing benefit, but had a lot of problems getting a correct calculation- I'm talking 8 weeks of phone calls and contradictory letters, while my student loan drained away.

After coming up with several amounts between full benefit and nothing (that was the time they added 500 onto our income insted of discounting it for books and travel) they came up with a figure of about £10.

As all my grant/loan was gone by then we struggled along til april 2006, when they sent a letter saying we were entitled to full benefit from June. In july, another letter saying they'd overpaid us for june, but wouldn't reclaim it as it was their error. They said we were entitled to about 85 from that point on (about 10 less than the actual rent).

They have continued paying that amount ever since, even though we did tell them about my 06/07 grant in september and gave all the paperwork to the woman who came to see us at home regarding renewing the claim at the end of october.

I just used the benefits calcultor mentioned in the 5 minute benefits checkout thread and that calculated our correct benefit at £54- so less than we're getting now but a lot more than we got last year on exactly the same income.

The obvious answer here is 'phone the council on monday'. But frankly, i'm really scared. i have no confidence in them actually calculating anything close to the correct figure at this stage and i don't want to be told I owe loads or that they're going back to the £10 figure- I am already going to have to leave uni this year without completing my degree for financial reasons.

I realise I will need to phone up, but can anyone give me any advice as to how I can be sure they work things out correctly in future? I think if they have overpaid me so far i should be able to appeal against repaying as they did get all the info and I can prove it (reciepts etc). Even if i do have to pay it back i know they don't take much per week. It's having the amount cut heavily that really troubles me and is the difference between having a home or not!

Morglin

If they have all the information and overpay you, then it's offical error.

If you want your assessment checked, or they try to get repayment from you for their error, then the CAB will help you:

http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/getadvice.htm

Lin

Wicked_witch

Thank you lin, that makes me feel quite a bit better :-)

Ross01

Just because its official error does not mean they can recover the overpayment. It they can show a reasonable person would have known they were being overpaid - eg by reading the assessment letters - then it is still recoverable

Wicked_witch

We haven't had a letter since the £85 one, so they could try to argue we should have queried it since. On the other hand, they definitely and demonstrably had all the correct information given to them in person twice- once to the local office and once to the visiting employee. It's probably going to be 50/50 really. As I say, my main concern isn't whether i have to pay it back- if i owe it, so be it-but how I can know which, if any, of their final calculations are even close to correct. We've had over half a dozen different and wildly varying amounts confirmed, all on exactly the same income.

real1314

Ross01 wrote: »

Just because its official error does not mean they can recover the overpayment. It they can show a reasonable person would have known they were being overpaid - eg by reading the assessment letters - then it is still recoverable

Very true, but if the claimant can show that they have had multiple letters, all seemingly based on the same info, and also that if the HB office have had all that info and THEY have been unable to see that they have mis-assessed, the claimant would have strong case to avoid repayment of an overpayment.
Student incomes are notorously difficult to assess!

The clearest of cases for recovering an official error OP are those where the claimant reports a significant change (e.g goes from full HB due to IS/JSA(ib) to fulll time work) but doesn't see a significant change in their HB - the HB dept can clearly argue that the claimant knew they were getting too much HB.

Morglin

Usually, if it's their error, they will try and make you repay, but if confronted by someone that knows the system (ie., the CAB), they tend to back off.

Which is why, it's best to tell HB you wish to appeal, and then get some professional help.

HB assessment letters are so convaluted, that unless it's a glaringly obvious miscalculation, then the average claimant wouldn't know whether it's right or not.

But, if a claimant has not disclosed anything, or has given incorrect info, then they would be liable to repay the overpayment.

Lin

Wicked_witch

This seems like eons ago now, but might as well update!

The council decided we owed them 3000 (!) as they'd overpaid us, just as I suspected. We went to tribunal, as we knew they were in the wrong and won! They then proceeded to mess up further by misunderstanding the tribunal decision and trying to get us to pay a further overpayment they'd created and we ended up making a formal complaint of maladministration to the Head of Finance. They have ended up paying us compensation of 1000, but as they left us 8000 in debt (rent unpaid by them and student loan for the year at uni they made me too stressed and ill to complete) it's a slightly hollow victory!

That's a very long story (6 months of hassle and worry) cut very short, but the moral is, if the council screw up, don't panic- complain non stop!

bwgames

I agree - I'm also a student, and its been crazy watching them do the benefits calculations - keeps on changing.

I ended up getting a copy of "Guide to HB and CTB 07/08" by John Zegebee(?) and doing the calculations myself, to get an idea of what they should be paying me, to avoid this happening in the future...